Paul French's"Midnight in Peking : How the Murder of an Young English Woman Haunted the Last Days of Old China"

Take one dead girl, a grieving father, an unknown murderer, two detectives (one Chinese, one English) Add 3000 other foreigners, who were sent there, came there, or drifted there, and never left. Plus an American school, English and Russian banks, a French post office, a German hospital, an Italian confectionery, a Portuguese church, and a Swiss hotel. Toss in a handful of criminals: Asian, European, and North American. Surround by a million Chinese, who owe their loyalty to the Nationalists, the Communists, and those whose only loyalty is to themselves. Top with the Japanese army, and you have a heck of a story for a film. Especially because of the colorful characters, including the grieving father.

A man you literally could not kill. Twice he survived attacks by bandits. Two fires. Two massacres. Death by drowning, Death by shipwreck. Death by trainwreck. And falling through a building skylight to the floor many feet below. Plus when he was in the Taiwanese jungle, he became so ill, he was thought to be at death's door, but, he saved himself by walking to safety alone and unaided. And he spent two years in a Japnese internment camp and walked away from that as well.

The only problem is that the case was never solved. While the author comes up with a logical supposition explaining the why, the who, the where, the when, the what, and the how, that is all it is is supposition.

Also read . . .

William Ryan's"The Darkening Field"or, the 2nd in Alexi Korolev series

How do you make someone likable, when you have been told almost all your life, that all Russians are unlikable. It's not easy.

Elizaabeth Hand's"Available Dark"The 2nd or 3rd in a trilogy with at least one more to follow. Plus 10 or 11 more works of fiction.

A book with one of the better endings, I have read. And we thought we had economic problems. This book takes place in Iceland, just after the total collapse of the Icelandic economy. The situation was so dire, that it was thought the Iceland government would have to declare bankruptcy to get out of the economic mess.

Just names, titles, and serieses and my recommendations for these two.

Chosen because they were edible, medicinal, commercial, and/or practical. Gives their native range, scientific class, and size. An interesting mixture for both the scientist and the public.

Gareth Rubin'sCrap Days Out

Title should be "Crap Days Out [in the U.K., or the 148 Worst Tourist Attractions in Great Britain] But I've seen 14 or about 9% of them, and I enjoyed all 14. So don't let the author's opinions stop you from visiting them, as I am not sure whether he is totally serious or not.

Andrew Lane'sRebel Fire2nd in the Sherlock Holmes : the Legend Begins series

Sherlock takes on an exotic animal collector and an unconverted Rebel to prevent the invasion of Canada. Where he meets people both factual and fictional. Among the factual people he meets is Count Zeppelin and John Wilkes Booth, who is a little worst for wear. If the 1st in the series shows how Sherlock became interested in bees, this shows how and where he learned to play the violin. A promised 3rd in the series coming, where Sherlock and his older brother Mycroft go traveling and encounter the Giant Rat of Sumatra.

Only names and titles for these, but they do come with my recommendation.

Jaden Terrell'sA Cup Full of Midnight2nd in the Jared McKean mystery series

Benjamin Black'sVengeance5th in the Quirke series

Hakan Nesser'sMunster's case6th in the An Inspector Van Veeteren mystery series

Spent Friday helping to sort books at the library again and came home with a carton-full of 'rescued' tomes. I was very excited to spot a paperback copy of Shirley Jackson's "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" on the top of one box. It turned out to have loose pages, so I scooped it before it went into the recycling bin. If you have read "The Haunting of Hill House" (yes, the source of the movie) you will understand my interest in this one: Jackson's writing is a phenomenon not to be missed. Such a talent. Always intense. Who can resist a novel that opens with:

My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live withmy sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead.

Whee!

Then there is an odd little book, translated from the Polish and somewhat obscure perhaps, by Alexandra Orme entitled "Comes the Comrade!" about the experiences of a well-to-do family of mixed Polish and Hungarian heritage during WWII and the Russian occupation of the part of Hungary they were living in. It is 'odd' because it is equally humorous and awful by turns. It may well represent the chaos and bizarre order of the conditions of war. It is a good read, so far. Here's a review that gives a good idea of what it is like: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/alexandra-orme-2/comes-the-comrade-2/

I am re-reading THE GRASS CROWN, the second volume of Colleen McCullough's enormous MASTERS OF ROME series. I have read all these books before, twice, but when I start one I always wind up re-reading the entire series. Gaius Marius and Lucius Cornelius Sulla, if they were anything like she portrays them, were truly larger than life figures.

I'm reading about 10 or 12 books at the moment. That's not impressive, it just means I read books in fits and starts.

But I have got a fixation at the moment on Joseph Stalin.

I first got interested in him when I read McCullough's Truman, which is a fantastic book. In that book, both Truman and Churchill, knowing full well what atrocities Stalin had done, could still refer to him in friendly terms. "Uncle Joe." They liked the guy.

I read Young Stalin, which approaches his start. Now I'm reading The Court of the Red Tsar, by the same author, Sebag Montefiore, which really gets into his terrifying reign. At the same time, I'm reading Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 by Judt, which, at least in the beginning, describes the machinations of Stalin to carve the world into a Soviet Empire.

Let me say, I don't like Stalin. (I know, hard hitting.) But he is probably the most powerful man that has ever lived. Whatever you think about Socialism versus Capitalism, Stalin managed to twist it all into Bolshevism, which captured half the world. His means were less than friendly. Basically fascism with a better ideology (because it was backed by military power).

Well, it all eventually failed, but I wasn't interested in that. I was interested in how one of history's greatest monsters, of which Stalin is, he killed more of his own citizens than Hitler ever succeeded in exterminating the Jews, could be regarded as a "good guy" by both Truman and Churchill.

So I'm reading. Stalin is one of history's greatest monsters.

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Every dead body that is not exterminated becomes one of them. It gets up and kills. The people it kills, get up and kill.

A very interesting take on Stalin's ongoing effect on Russia and Europe is a novel called ARCHANGEL by Thomas Harris. Fiction, but with a strong factual background.

One thing I find fascinating is that we STILL have no idea of just how many Stalin killed. Estimates range from a low of 20 million to a high near 60 million. That's INSANE!

BTW, I have read both books you mention, as well as numerous biographies of Truman and Churchill (and FDR). I think Truman and Churchill both knew Stalin for what he was, but also recognized that he was A. a very valuable ally against Hilter and B. a personally charming man when he wanted to be. The one who truly seemed to have no clue what a monster Stalin truly was would be FDR. If you like this time period, I recommend Thomas Fleming's THE NEW DEALER'S WAR.

Two years worth of full-size Sunday comics in every volume. This covers the years 1945 and 1946.

Ian Fleming's and Jim Lawrence's"The Spy Who Loved Me" and "The Harpies"

The last of Fleming's original novels serialized for the comic pages, and Lawrence picking up where Fleming left off with hardly a miss. Lawrence and others would continue the comic strip series, off and on, for almost another two decades, from the '60's to the '80's.

Mark Ward's"Ruse : the Victorian Guide to Murder"In the manner of Sherlock Holmes, but Ward isn't the storyteller that Doyle ws.

Jeff Jensen's"Green River Killer : a True Detective Story"

A graphic novel by the son of the lead detective in the case. The story does point out, that serial killers don't spend all their time serial killing, as they do have some sort of home life. And the police detectives who chase these serial killers don't spend all their time chasing serial killers, as they, too, have some sort of home life.

Rick Geary's"Lovers' Lane : the Hall-Mills Mystery"

His 2nd true crime series. His 1st deals with murder in the U.S. and the U.K. during the 19th century. This series deals with the same subject in the 20th century. His graphic telling of the story and the other stories in the series makes them easy to follow.

"Star Wars Omnibus: Droids and Ewoks"

Another Star Wars omnibus or collection of comics and comic books featuring the characters from the "Star Wars" films. Here the emphasis is on C3P0, R2D2, and the Ewoks. While the Ewoks stories are mainly geared toward kids, the Droid stories, and they are the only ones I have seen so far, are geared toward both kids and adults.

Dean Koontz'"House of Odd"3rd in the series in graphic format.

Not effective (IMHO) as the previous two, which you have the natural doing the unnatural, as here the author delves somewhat into the supernatural. As a side note, there is talk of adapting the series into a film for the big screen.

Bloodstone:being the 11th of the sorrowful mysteries of Brother Athelstan

Who's killing off the last surviving members of a company of archers that many years ago fougt in France.

The Mysterium:a Hugh Corbett medieval mystery

Our hero tries to track down a hired killer operating in medieval London, before he can kill again.

These are only two of seven on-going series of 56 fiction books by Doherty. One of the most interesting is a combination mystery horror series based on the characters from Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales." For example, in the first in the series, who is killing off the residents of a town in England? Is it the hive of vampires that has recently been spotted in town?

And . . .

David King'sDeath in the City of Light : the Serial Killer of Nazi-occupied Paris..

If anybody was said to be a product of his time, it's this serial killer, who during the war made use of the Nazis or Germans occupying Paris. The collaborators, who thought the best way to survive was to collaborate with the enemy. The resisters, who were divided into the Communists and Gaullists, who thought the best way to survive was to resist the enemy. And everybody else, including most of the Jews, most of whom actually survived to the end of the war, who thought the best way to survive was to keep one head's down and get on with life, the best way one could. The exception to the Jews being those who were shipped to the concentration camps. Few of whom actually returned to France.

There are several other books on this story, but this is probably the best one yet, as he does not suggest anything that cannot be proven by the facts as we know them. And as a sidenote, Georges Simenon fictional detective Commissaire Maigret, was based on the man, who for a time, was the lead detective on this case.

And several graphic novels.

Tales from the Cryptin 9 volumes

Volumes 1 to 6 being stories of terror. Volume 7 being a mixture of stories. And volumes 8 and 9 being story parodies. Maybe because terror seems to be simpler to write than parodies, the best volumes are the early volumes in the series.

The compendium "Flying Blind"made up of "The Amazing Spider-man" #674 to #677 and "Daredevil" #8

One of the library aides recommended this to me; gonna start it tonight....

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If it's true what they say, that GOD created us in His image, then why should we not love creating, and why should we not continue to do so, as carefully and ethically as we can, on whatever scale we're capable of?

The choice is simple; refuse to create, and refuse to grow, or build, with care and love.

Twelve Years A Slave - one of the bestselling pre-Civil War slave narratives, this is the account of Solomon Northup who was born a free man in New York but was nabbed and sold into slavery by - apparently - a human trafficking ring. I'm only three chapters in and it's already pretty horrific. Indie director Steve McQueen (yep, that's really his name, and ironically he's neither American nor white) is doing a movie adaptation of it which should be interesting.

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Through the darkness of future pastThe magician longs to seeOne chance opts between two worldsFire walk with me

All of whom stayed in one of the grand hotels mentioned in the book, and in all the times the Aussies went wild during WWI, when they were stationed in Egypt. Beating up the natives, overturning the buses and trams, shooting up the bars and cafes, and burning down the brothels. They were so well remembered that when WWII came around, the Egyptian government asked that no more Aussies be stationed in Egypt.

David Meeker'sJazz in the movies :a guide to jazz musicians, 1917-1977.

Either their appearance on the screen and/or in their contribution to the film score. A comprehensive collection, and a good collection if one is interested in such. Of course, now out of date. And, oh yes, Probably the oldest book I've read.

Fleming is an absolute flamethrower - I am currently reading his THE ILLUSION OF VICTORY: AMERICA'S WORLD WAR I EXPERIENCE. I rarely agree with him, but he still makes his points with clarity and eloquence and is never boring, which is the most I ask out of any historian. Revisionists are a necessary part of the historical process; they force us to re-think our conventions and question whether or not we got it right. From what I have read of Fleming, he seems to be one who just loves to take aim at idols and see if he can knock them off their pedestals.